The day after Youtube cancels my partnership, just a few days before Amazon lowers their royalty rate, my show will be on TVOD for the first time… and available to a Christian audience. I’m curious how making it available through a portal that caters to a Christian customer will go. Might be good, might be average.

In the past month episodes of Peculiar were started 165 times on Amazon. But the show was only viewed for 932 minutes. Meaning the episodes were watched, on average, under 6 minutes. That makes sense, considering Amazon isn’t a religious platform.

There aren’t a lot of comedies on Christian Cinema. Virtually no TV sitcoms. My show is both low budget and different in content. So it may not fit. or it may be well received. Time will tell.

I found what I think is my first real doc short. I’ve done interview/b roll projects for work and stuff for years. But this was a project I just wanted to do to educate about the importance of reading young. It’s from 2014 and stars my family.

Also, it was a pretty dry creative time for me. I was working corporate AV… too many hours for not enough pay. We were looking for a decent job, planning to move. We had sold our house and were living in my in-law’s home. I just needed to make something.

I had a 1st gen Canon EOS-M, a microphone and Zoom H4n recorder. I didn’t say, “Hey, let’s make a documentary film.” I just interviewed the family, shot some B roll and put it together. It’s too long, pacing is slow, the coloring is heavy handed, and I hate the music. But otherwise, not bad for throwing something together. Things have changed a lot in 4 years.

The changes in SVOD platforms have made me take a long look at where the series has been available, and where the people who would most want to see it are consuming content.

I believe that even though the series is aging, the best outlet is Christian Cinema.

Assuming all goes as planned, all 10 episodes of Peculiar will be available on ChristianCinema.com through the Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) platform. You’ll be able to purchase episodes or the entire series, and view it on your computer, TV or digital device.

At the end of February, Peculiar will no longer be available on Amazon Prime Video. And it’s already been removed from Youtube.

Check out the newly-cut-for-2018 series trailer for Peculiar:

It’s my hope that making this content (which was made for a Christian audiences) available to people who are looking for Christian content, more people will see it. Instead of just throwing it out into the world through any outlet possible, this more targeted release will put the show in front of more people who might actually want to watch it.

I’ve been writing about changes to Youtube and Amazon Video Direct. Two major outlet for indie filmmakers have changed… for the worse. I still have no idea how this will all shake out for these outlets or indie filmmakers.

Amazon’s announcement of royalty cuts really frustrated me. You see, my series, Peculiar, was on both Youtube and Amazon Video. It’s an odd thing to have Christian content on secular outlets. On Amazon, every Christian who reviewed my show gave it 5 stars. Every non Christian reviewer gave it 1 star. It’s written for Christian audiences.

Right after the first 6 episodes were completed I landed a traditional distribution deal. I created a DVD, complete with a a set of Bible studies. For a brief time the DVD was available in actual brick and mortar stores. And through Christian Book Distributors and Amazon.com, and a few others. Then my distributor lost his access to the brick and mortars. And he was not interested moving the series to digital. I wrote about the success and lack of success before. I still have a few DVDs… contact me if you’re interested.

We agreed to part ways, and I looked for ways to get the show in front of people. Initially, that was through Youtube. This wasn’t the first time full episodes had been available online. I knew I could get the series up, and make it available.

So the show went from traditional DVD distribution to digital availability via ad-based delivery, and then Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) through Amazon Prime. It’s never been offered through a Transactional VOD service.

And it’s never been offered to specifically Christian audiences digitally.

So, I essentially skipped an entire distribution window. That’s understandable, self distribution was relatively new through TVOD and SVOD, and I just wanted the show out there.

Here I am with an aging, micro-budget series. The show has always been generally well received by its target audience. But the retail offerings have been very limited.

I’m seriously considering moving Peculiar to TVOD through Christian Cinema. It’s obviously the right outlet for the audience. But that means every episode goes behind a paywall. No more free viewing. (Except on the broadcast outlets STILL showing it…)

I do like seeing the series available on Amazon Prime. But I don’t think a lot of people are seeing it. Less than 1000 minutes streamed over the past 12 weeks. There was even less time viewed when it was on Youtube.

An outlet like Christian Cinema offer a niche market, for the right products. Amazon Prime has over 20,000 titles available while Christian Cinema has about 4,000. Sure, Christian Cinema has just 250,000 monthly users, but they are 250,000 users that are looking for Christian content and I’m trying to get noticed in a much smaller pool of content.

Specifically, there are currently only a few hundred comedies available through Christian Cinema. Many of them are stand up shows. The only comedy TV series available is The Statler Brothers TV Show, and that’s a DVD- not a digital offering.

Let’s do a reality check. Peculiar is micro-budget, and has all the issues that you find with that level of production. It’s old, with no new episodes since 2013. And it’s had a chance at Christian retail and failed.

My desire for the show has always been for more people to see it. If offering it through TVOD on a Christian outlet will help that to happen, maybe that’s what I should do. Not a lot of people are seeing it through Amazon.

I’ve pretty much told everyone who will listen that if you’re a filmmaker doing short films, AVD, not Youtube, is the place to be. Especially since the new YPP policy at Youtube is about to take effect. I have made way, way more off a few short films on Amazon Video than I ever did off of Youtube.

Apparently Amazon woke up to how sweet the deal was, and has just announced that they are drastically reducing the royalty rate for videos watched through Amazon Prime streaming.

Previously videos watched with Prime got $0.15 per hour of video watched (In the US). Titles submitted through AVD had a maximum cap royalty of $75,000 per year per title.

Some people were upset about that cap. But to reach it your video had to be streamed for 500,000 hours. If you’ve got content that popular, it might be time to work with a distributor that can bypass the Amazon Video Direct system and go directly with Amazon.

The new royalty rates eliminate that cap. Which is good, I guess. And the new rates are for all territories. Not just the US. The new rate is what AVD paid for other territories outside the US. And while the rate drops a lot, you can earn higher rates if your videos are watched a lot.

The new rates are tiered based on hours of viewing PER TITLE. Up to 99,999 hours you get $0.06 per hour. That’s right, the rate drops by almost 2/3 in the US. This will put me right about the Youtube payment range. Most short films will never hit this amount of viewing time.

If you have 100,000 hours of viewing, the rate increases to $0.10 per hour. Over 500,000 hours and you’re back to $0.15 per hour. But cross 1,000,000 hours and you drop back to $0.06 again.

In order to reach the $0.15 per hour rate again, you have to have 500,000 hours of viewing. So the cap is gone, but it takes longer to hit $75,000.

($75,000 in royalties? Who are we kidding? How many indie filmmakers hit 500,000 hours of viewing on Amazon?)

A 5 minute long short film would need to be watched in its entirety 1,200,000 times in a year before that title could make $0.10 per viewing hour, which is still 1/3 less than the original royally. A 2 hour movie would need to be watched 50,000 times to hit that same royalty rate.

“The tiered structure allows us to align the Prime Subscription Access rate with the level of customer engagement generated by each individual title or season (more engaging titles earn a higher royalty rate). By doing so, we offer a few advantages for providers, including elimination of the title-level annual earnings cap and expanded earnings potential in territories outside the U.S.”

I get it. I’ve seen some bad videos on Amazon Prime. And even though I have short films on Amazon, I know most people don’t sit down at the TV and look for short films. So Amazon is making it less lucrative for creators who pump out bad or short content, and focusing on content that keeps viewers engaged for longer; because it’s good enough that people watch more of it and because it’s literally longer.

But, man it stinks for short film creators. Up to this point AVD was a good way to make a little extra cash for your efforts. Not major money, but better than the alternatives. Now that Youtube has put the clamp on casual creators, AVD is still the best outlet for short content. But the paycheck is about to get a lot smaller than it already was.

Last week Youtube changed the requirements of partner channels, effectively killing their partner relationships with all casual creators. This is my somewhat tongue-and-cheek commentary on the subject.

Ok, that’s a bit satirically-sappy, but there are a couple of things that are serious.

Youtube was built by smaller channels. The vast majority of the 300 HOURS of content uploaded every minute is uploaded to small channels. Without those channels, Youtube wouldn’t be the 2nd largest search engine in the world.

Any channel, of any size, can upload content that helps or entertains others. Youtube should not ignore that. Partner status isn’t about getting money as much as it’s about Youtube recognizing that your channel contributes in a positive way to the community. We are literally partners. Casual creators can and have helped Youtube as a business and platform. This move signals a lack of appreciation and respect for those channels.

That’s the big deal. I saw a few videos of people talking about how people shouldn’t be upset because the money they are losing is very small. They’ve missed the point entirely.

I always looked being a Youtube Partner as being in an actual partnership. I contributed to that relationship in some small part, and Youtube appreciated that relationship. So they shared a little of what I helped them earn. Not because it was a big payout, but because we were partners.

I felt a certain amount of loyalty to the platform. We were partners. I was a part of making it successful. They appreciated my videos, and I felt like I was helping people. And helping Youtube sell ads. My content was helping make Youtube a place where people could search for answers, or entertainment.

Turns out, Youtube just doesn’t care about channels like mine. I didn’t change, Youtube did. Youtube doesn’t care about the very channels that help make up the massive amount of content that is searched and served billions of times.

Got an email from Youtube today saying they are raising the bar on monetized channels. New minimum levels are 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watched in a 12 month period. Pretty low overall… but it’s a hurdle for new/casual creators.

I have (had) 2 channels that are (were) monetized. One was for my show from a few years ago. It saw decent traffic when it was active, but no new content has been posted in years. I was just leaving the episodes online so people could find them. Most people see them on Amazon Prime, not Youtube. That channel is losing monetization. it will never reach the new bar for views or subscribers.

My other channel is more active, but I’m not sure I’m seeing 4000 hours of viewing annually. I’ve got several thousand views on some videos. I do not have 1000 subscribers. So, that channel will be de monetized soon, I’m sure.

This move really hits casual creators. I’m never doing a daily Vlog. I’m busy, and only post occasionally. I have chosen YT as the outlet for that because it is the 2nd largest search engine in the world and every month my stupid, little videos give me a very small amount of money. (Think fast food lunch, or afternoon Coke.) But hey, free money. And maybe someone can use the content, or is entertained.

So I put up with the overzealous content ID system, and the trolls and the ugly interface and the compression.

Youtube says that 99% of the channels affected by the new changes made less than $100 last year. They make it clear that their priority is for channels making a living off Youtube. Casual creators like myself are not considered.

I get why, to some extent. Youtube wants good, new, and consistent content to keep people coming back. more people means more advertisers. And after some advertisers to mad about being sown on some weird/bad videos, they have been working to protect that ad revenue. I can see why they would want more growing channels with larger audiences, and less small channels.

I don’t have consistent content I post every week, but a few videos on my channel have been really helpful to viewers. A few simple tech tips about how to use old lenses on modern cameras, and testing video gear, etc., have really helped some viewers. Or so they say in my comments. Youtube is removing the incentive to make any more of these. Or at least, the incentive to post them on Youtube… (Vimeo anyone?)

I wonder how this move will affect the ecosystem. Less casual creators, more intentional channels. Could be good, but will it, overall, lower the volume of video uploaded? Will that make it easier to have content noticed? What will be the fallout, if any?

Personally, what stops me from switching to Vimeo? Is the search function on YT worth it? I’m not sure. Let’s see how things progress.

I mean, I know that you can impact things by having more reviews, or sharing the links to the video and generating more traffic. But when that’s not happening, what makes Amazon Video show content to people?

Recently I saw a spike in older content that’s on Amazon Video, which I placed their through Amazon Video Direct. I’ve done zero promotion for this in the last year. It just sits there.

I assumed that people who are searching for religious video content on Amazon might stumble across it. And I’ve seen a steady trickle of payments that reflect that. I’m getting enough to pay for my lunch once a month. Not bad for content that was just sitting on a hard drive. AVD payments are always more than my similar content on Youtube. Always.

Then October happens. Suddenly there is a spike in minutes viewed and number of individual streams. And almost all of it is for the series. And based the a couple of reviews, the people seeing it aren’t looking for religious content. (It’s always a fun adventure to see how a non Christian reviewer sees content that is meant specifically for a Christian audience.)

So I don’t get how Amazon is populating the series to viewers. I search through Google to see if the link had been shared somewhere, but didn’t find anything other than the normal listings. Its actually easier to find the series on Youtube or Parables TV if you search on Google.

Overall the numbers of views aren’t huge, but its about 5 times what I normally get. Now, in November, the views have dropped back to the normal rate. I wish I understood this better so I can capitalize on it more when my doc film releases next year.

There’s a virus infecting the internet. Really, it’s infecting internet users. Luckily there are steps you can take to protect yourself.

Symptoms of this infection are most easily seen in the comment sections of popular sites like Youtube or social media platforms. While it may show up anywhere, it’s rampant in tech communities.

The affliction comes on you like this: You do a Youtube search to find out more about a piece of gear, maybe a drone or camera. You watch a video, and realize that the video didn’t include some very critical information. So you have the overwhelming urge to comment, to share you’re superior understanding of the issue.

Maybe someone has asked a question in a group you frequent. But you know that the question, at it’s base level is fundamentally flawed. So, rather than answer the simple question, you proceed to explain why the original post is wrong headed and tell the world the correct approach, provide the correct information. At no time do you even consider answering the question as asked.

It can strike at any time, on any issue.

Here’s an example about van graphics:

Original post is looking for design inspiration. The two commenters were stricken with the need to share vital information, unrelated to the original question. One even correcting the 1st commenter.

I recently saw a comment on a professional videographer’s video about a drone flight. The commenter was quick to point out that the video has been taken illegally, since the location required a permit to fly drones. At no point did the commenter consider that the person flying the drone may have actually acquired a permit, and been flying with permission.

Once a member of a FB group posted an innocent questions about showing videos in their church. Rather than answer that question, several responders pointed out that showing the clips would be illegal without the proper licensing. At no time did the infected consider that the person asking the question might already know that. They assumed they knew better, and told everyone so.

Technically Superior Internet Syndrome (or T-SIS) is rampant.

There is at this time, no cure. But you can fight the symptoms by being aware of them, and taking a moment before you answer a question to make sue you’re actually answering a question. Pause before you tell the world how wrong someone is to make sure you know all the facts. Generally, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. If you aren’t answering the question, don’t post.

To be frank this one has been tough. I put in more work setting this one up than any of the previous ones. I had the “large” donors set up to drop their donations in the first few days. And I had built relationships in communities that will be the target audience for the finished movie.

When the campaign launched, I had several large donations come in. But almost zero small donations. When I did the campaigns for my TV show I had lots of small donations and almost no large ones. A couple of the communities I was in were a bust. I don’t know what happened to the rest.

But a few larger donations have come in outside the campaign. I am under $500 away from reaching the goal.

It’s not likely that I will reach it, but I will have enough to make the film, and tell these stories. Later, I will try to figure out how I misread my audience so much.